“Microsoft, whose Windows operating system is often knocked for flaws that leave it vulnerable to malicious computer viruses and worms, is developing a program to protect against such attacks,” Holly Sanders reports for The New York Post. “The company has been pushed to improve security after being plagued by epidemics such as the Blaster worm and Sobig virus in recent years. Those attacks crashed people’s computers and led to widespread slowdowns in Internet traffic.”
“The irony was a bit much for some Windows users, though, who questioned why the software behemoth would sell a product to deal with viruses that take advantage of problems within its own operating system,” Sanders reports. “‘That’s like buying a car with a leaky gas tank and having to pay the car manufacturer to have a fire engine drive alongside,’ one irate user wrote in a posting on a chat board site.”
“The usual defense is that Windows is the target of so many attacks because just about everyone uses it. But computer experts contend that the software has inherent shortcomings that make it an easier hit than rival systems such as Mac OS X and Linux,” Sanders reports. “‘Many of the perceived security problems with Microsoft products are real,’ said Richard Ford, a computer virus expert and professor at the Florida Institute of Technology.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How ’bout just fixing Windows first? Or is that too much to ask? With this news, we have the answer; obviously it is too much to ask of the Redmond monopoly abuser. Our advice? Get a Mac. You can thank us later.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Is Mac OS X really inherently more secure than Windows? – August 26, 2003
BusinessWeek’s Haddad gets it wrong; thinks low market share spares Macs from viruses – August 28, 2003
Shattering the Mac OS X ‘security through obscurity’ myth – August 28, 2003
Fortune columnist: ‘get a Mac’ to thwart viruses; right answer for the wrong reasons – September 02, 2003
New York Times: Mac OS X ‘much more secure than Windows XP’ – September 18, 2003
Columnist tries the ‘security through obscurity’ myth to defend Windows vs. Macs on virus front – October 1, 2003
Gates: Windows ‘by far the most secure’ system; tries to use ‘Mac OS X secure through obscurity’ myth – January 27, 2004
Mac OS X has no viruses; what’s wrong with Windows? – February 11, 2004
Spyware, adware plague Windows users online; Mac OS X users surf freely – April 19, 2004
Gartner: Worms jack up the total cost of Microsoft Windows – May 07, 2004
Apple exec: Mac OS X is ‘more secure than other platforms, certainly more secure than Microsoft Windows’ – June 14, 2004